Fernando Sosa Garcia said he is lucky to be alive after a four-foot-long metal bar crashed through his windshield while he was driving.
“I was on my way home from an interview," Garcia told KOB 4. "I was heading southbound on I-25. When I was driving I saw a piece — a metal object on the road. The car in front of me was a good 40 to 45 feet away. I saw the lady trying to swerve and avoid the metal object, but it was already on a roll from where it fell from. She hit it on the side of her fender and that caused it to start skipping and catch some air."
Garcia was unable to avoid the flying metal bar, according to KOB 4. There was no time to swerve or avoid the object.
"I kind of just braced myself for the impact," he said.
The bar crashed through the driver's side air vent, just a few inches from seriously injuring his body, KOB 4 reported. Approximately $6,000 worth of damage was done to his car, but Garcia suffered only a few scratches from the broken windshield.
"I honestly felt death at the moment – not going to lie," he said. "Once I saw that thing, I felt relieved that it didn't touch me. I felt relieved that it didn't go all the way through or hit me."
Garcia posted a video of the metal beam impaled through the windshield on TikTok, according to KOB 4. The video was viewed more than 7.4 million times. He told KOB 4 that he hopes the video serves as a wake-up call to people carrying dangerous cargo.
"I had to let people know to let other truck drivers and stuff like that to make sure their loads are good and tied on," Garcia said. "... I could have lost my life, and this could have went [sic] on a whole different other route."
Officials from the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) said drivers not properly securing their loads is a growing problem in the metro Albuquerque area, KOB 4 reported.
"We're called to remove anything from tires, I've seen kitchen sinks, I've seen barrels and bins of things from people moving," Kimberly Gallegos, public information officer for NMDOT, told KOB 4. "We're asking the public to please be aware of this — to really watch their loads as they travel through our state and through our roadways. As you can see — in this particular situation, it could have been fatal. It's very scary."
